Raymond James Coxon (18 August 1896 – 31 January 1997) was a British artist. He enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, the Royal College of Art, and became a teacher in the Richmond School of Art. The creative work of his long and successful career—singly and in various art groups—included landscape and portrait painting, abstract works, creating church murals and serving as a war artist during World War II. In particular he was known for the bold style of his figure and portrait work. After World War Two his paintings became more abstract.

Life and work

Coxon was born in

Hanley, Staffordshire Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been the ...

, the second of seven children to James and Georgina Coxon. When he completed his schooling, at the local Leek High School, Coxon joined the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

. He applied to join the

Artists Rifles The 21 Special Air Service Regiment (Artists) (Reserve), historically known as The Artists Rifles is a regiment of the Army Reserve. Its name is abbreviated to 21 SAS(R). Raised in London in 1859 as a volunteer light infantry unit, the regime ...

but was rejected and joined the cavalry section of the

Machine Gun Corps The Machine Gun Corps (MGC) was a Regiment, corps of the British Army, formed in October 1915 in response to the need for more effective use of machine guns on the Western Front (World War I), Western Front in the World War I, First World War. Th ...

with whom he served, and fought, in Egypt and Palestine throughout

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. While abroad he painted miniatures in watercolours which he sent home to his family. Convoy (1942) (Art

After he was discharged from the Army, Coxon enrolled at the Leeds School of Art, now the Leeds College of Art. While he was there, between 1919 and 1921, he not only met his future wife but also became friends with a fellow student,

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Mo ...

. In 1922 Moore and Coxon visited France and met a number of artists there, including

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist grou ...

and

Aristide Maillol Aristide Joseph Bonaventure Maillol (; December 8, 1861 – September 27, 1944) was a French Sculpture, sculptor, Painting, painter, and printmaking, printmaker.Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette . "Maillol, Aristide". ''Grove Art Online. Oxford ...

. Coxon continued his studies in London at the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It ...

between 1921 and 1925 under Sir

William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...

. For his RCA Diploma submission, Coxon produced a mural based on

Masaccio Masaccio (, , ; December 21, 1401 – summer 1428), born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was a Florentine artist who is regarded as the first great Italian painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasar ...

's ''

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden ''The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden'' ( it, Cacciata dei progenitori dall'Eden) is a fresco by the Italian Early Renaissance artist Masaccio. The fresco is a single scene from the cycle painted around 1425 by Masaccio, Masolino and others on th ...

''. Coxon took a teaching post at the Richmond School of Art in 1925 and in 1926 he married

Edna Ginesi Edna "Gin" Ginesi (15 February 1902 – 17 July 2000) was a British painter, specialising in landscapes and nature studies. Born in Leeds, she was a contemporary of the sculptors Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. She studied at the Royal Coll ...

, with Moore acting as his best-man. Coxon would later perform the same service for Moore when he married Irina Radetsky in July 1929. In 1927 the Coxons, Moore, Leon Underwood and others formed a short-lived artists grouping called the British Independent Society. The following year Coxon had his first one-man show at the Cooling Galleries. He became a member of the

London Group The London Group is a society based in London, England, created to offer additional exhibiting opportunities to artists besides the Royal Academy of Arts. Formed in 1913, it is one of the oldest artist-led organisations in the world. It was form ...

in 1931 and of the Chiswick Group in 1938. Early in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Coxon offered his services to the

War Artists' Advisory Committee The War Artists Advisory Committee (WAAC), was a British government agency established within the Ministry of Information at the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 and headed by Sir Kenneth Clark. Its aim was to compile a comprehensive artist ...

, WAAC, and in particular volunteered to return to Palestine as a war artist. That offer was refused but WAAC commissioned Coxon to produce some paintings of Army subjects in Britain, after which they purchased several other pieces from him. Independently of WAAC, Coxon received commissions from the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

and Army that saw him spend time on a corvette on convoy duty, join a river patrol on the Thames and witness parachutists making training jumps. He also produced some fine portraits during the war, notably of the

Victoria Cross The Victoria Cross (VC) is the highest and most prestigious award of the British honours system. It is awarded for valour "in the presence of the enemy" to members of the British Armed Forces and may be awarded posthumously. It was previousl ...

recipient Pip Gardner and also a portrait of his own wife in her ambulance service uniform. After the war, Coxon, and Ginesi, continued to paint and travel. His paintings became more abstract and less representational but the main theme of his work remained, as it had been in the 1930s, the depiction of nature and of landscapes. Coxon and Ginesi held a joint show at the Parkin Gallery in 1985 and he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the

Potteries Museum & Art Gallery The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery is in Bethesda Street, Hanley, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. Admission is free. One of the four local authority museums in the city, the other three being Gladstone Pottery Museum, ...

in 1987 and a memorial exhibition at the Walton Gallery in 2001.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coxon, Raymond 1896 births 1997 deaths 20th-century English male artists 20th-century English painters Alumni of Leeds Arts University Alumni of the Royal College of Art British Army personnel of World War I British war artists English centenarians English male painters English portrait painters People from Hanley, Staffordshire Machine Gun Corps soldiers Men centenarians World War II artists Military personnel from Staffordshire